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I just got an OEM Barton 2500+ AQZFA 0343 UPMW from newegg and true to AMD's warnings, it's multiplier locked. Doesn't matter if you have an nforce2 chipset or not. This baby's locked up at 11x. I tried 10x and it wouldn't even post and required a CMOS clear. Word is that the wire tricks don't even work on these post week 39 cpu's.

More info on steppings and AMD's nefarious plans here.
http://www.pcabusers.net/forums/showthr ... adid=31024

Be advised tho that you are still able to manipulate the FSB. I've got this one running your basic 11*200 FSB (3200+ / 2.2 GHz ) and have just begun to shake it down with prime95.

Best to hang onto those pre week 39ers if you have one ! I know I'll be keeping my AQXEA week 22 for awhile.

Whoa is me.. I did find this : XP-TMC and they boast in MaximumPC that it can change the multi from 5x-24x in .5x increments.. Could this be the answer? Though, it's a pain in the arse to pull the CPU everytime until you find the sweetspot. But isn't that was PC Abusers is about? heh.. The other downside is that it also appears to require a special cooler, but I would imagine that bolt-on HSF may be able to bypass that need..?? eGo


***edit*** Well, upon delving further into their site they say that even their device won't unloc the new CPUs.. So it looks like we'll all be stuck with getting some of that expensive PC4000 and piping up the FSBs until, in the words of scotty, "I'm givin' it all she's got!" comes into play. Maybe AMD will realize that not everybody out there is an OCer and there are still a great number of persons who but the 3200+ even though it's much higher in cost simply because they don't know how to/don't want to OC a cheaper chip to a faster speed.. But, all that said.. The true OCers and PC Abusers will find a way!!!

I can't blame AMD for wanting people to spend $400+ on a Barton3200+. Once the cat was out of bag that the 2500+'s were, for the most, a pretty easy OC up to 2.2 GHz I think they had to do something. $300 discounts on chips can get pretty hard on a company's bottom line.

I wonder though if people won't be more inclined to take the plunge on an Intel ( ) 2.6C/800fsb and OC it to 3-3.2 GHz rather than spend the heavy dough for a Barton 3200+?

I am a bit surprised that AMD sees it as that big of a deal in that I didn't think there were that many of us OCers relative to the PC using public. Hell, there's even a few people on here that aren't into OCing? Now THAT's scary!

I know what you mean, I can't blame them either.. But damn.. lol.. I did find some Barton 2500+ AQXEA 0331 on FleaBay that are still going for what I feel is a reasonable price.. ~$100 after shipping. I'm tride and true to AMD and hopefully Nvidia's next line of chipsets will uncover and bypass their multiplier locks.. But who knows.

On the P4 bandwagon, I too have been tempted to buy the stuff just to fool around with one and see what it can do. But I really like my AMDs as far as PPP (Price Per Performance). I may have to save up a little dough and toy with a P4 in the future.. Who knows... Don't keep any fingers crossed though..

eGo

This locked Barton I just got is a D-O-G as far as OCing goes too. I can get it to run 2.2 GHz but only if I lay 1.85v on it. Most of them will do 2.33 with as little as 1.78 - 1.8v or so.

Took me a few hours of stability testing and some loose mobo timings to get it do that.

I've been reading in some of the OCing forums where the later week Barton 25's aren't OCing as well as some of the earlier chips. Maybe they're downbinning the chips that won't run reliably at 200FSB. One wonders.